


not that anyone ever remembers

by straweleon



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Amnesia, Christmas, Doug Eiffel's Birthday, First Christmas Back On Earth, Friendship, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:08:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28271397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/straweleon/pseuds/straweleon
Summary: Doug brings a guitar home. Lovelace teaches him to play it, and soon enough, Doug's birthday rolls around.
Relationships: Doug Eiffel & Isabel Lovelace
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	not that anyone ever remembers

**Author's Note:**

> yeah so i've been thinking about this idea of lovelace teaching doug guitar, post-canon, and here it is, it also doubles as a doug eiffel day (i guess some people would call doug eiffel day "christmas") fic. i am just constantly thinking about lovelace & eiffel parallels so here goes. hope you enjoy.

Doug brought a guitar home.

It looked like a decent-enough acoustic guitar. The strings definitely needed replacing, but that was to be expected when Doug had said it was an old guitar from before the Hephaestus. He didn’t say anything about his trip to see his (rather, Eiffel’s) family, so Lovelace didn’t ask.

She did, however, ask Doug if he remembered how to play the thing.

“Nope,” he answered. “Not a clue.”

“Well, I could teach you the basics. Once we get some working strings on that thing.”

She watched Doug’s eyes light up. “You play guitar?” he asked.

“I played bass guitar way back, so I know a few things about guitar. Just the basics, but I am a damn good teacher, music aside,” she answered. She motioned for Doug to hand the instrument over, and he obliged, grabbing the guitar by the neck and passing it to Lovelace.

She gave it a once-over. As expected, the strings were gross, but the instrument itself was in decent condition. She took a moment to tune the thing, and Doug sat down next to her. After an excruciating few seconds of trying to get the e string to sound right, she strummed a G chord and it didn’t sound too bad. She looked over at Doug. He was grinning.

“Well,” Lovelace muttered. “Let’s see if I still got it.” She hammered out an easier riff that she remembered- had she written it, or was it one that she’d learned? That, she didn’t remember, but the movement came natural to her, even playing old bass riffs from god knows when on an acoustic guitar with shitty old strings. She had some issues with her picking hand, but remembered her way around a guitar well enough.

“I think it’s safe to say that you still got it,” Doug said, smiling. “What song was that?”

“I… hm. I think that was a song a friend and I wrote in college. It kind of just comes really naturally to me when I pick up a bass. Or a guitar.”

Her fingers found their way to another riff. She knew Feel Good Inc. so well because whenever she’d play it, everyone would recognize it.

“What song’s that?”

“Feel Good Inc. by Gorillaz,” Lovelace answered.

“Huh. I like that. It sounds cool.”

“Really? All you heard was a bass riff on an out of tune acoustic guitar-” then Lovelace realized that this man had probably not found his taste in music yet. He’d been trying to get his life together these past couple of months back on earth, and who was there to show him a good taste in music? Lovelace cleared her throat. “What do you say I show you some real music while we go out and buy some strings?”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

* * *

Seeing her (or, rather, the original Isabel Lovelace’s) family was… fine. Lovelace actually had really enjoyed it, aside from the whole alien thing. She did take her old bass guitar, she figured that even if Isabel Lovelace wasn’t around, she’d still want someone playing the thing. Her old electric guitar too. That, she had never used too much, but she knew someone who would.

Lovelace did end up picking a guitar amplifier and a couple of packs of strings up from a guitar shop on her way home. She had her old bass amp, but she figured that a guitar amp would be put to good use and a good present.

Thankfully, Doug was out when Lovelace got home. She walked inside with her old bass on her back and the guitar in hand, both in their respective cases.

“Hey, Isabel,” Hera greeted. “What’s all of that?”

“Just a present for Doug and something of my own. Or, rather, something of Isabel Lovelace the first’s-”

“Hey!” Minkowski called from the living room. “What’d we say about identity crises?”

Lovelace groaned. “No identity crises in the kitchen.” She dropped the guitars in her room and headed to the couch to sit down beside Minkowski.

“How was it?” Minkowski asked.

“The… not family visit?”

“Hey.”

“We’re not in the kitchen! That rule is stupid anyway, Doug and I have a conversation _one time_ -”

Hera chimed in, “one conversation that lasted for an hour and ended in-”

“The point is,” Lovelace interrupted, “seeing them was really nice.”

“So… why didn’t you stay for the holidays?” Hera asked.

“Well, I got something pretty cool for Doug,” Lovelace said. “I also would feel extremely weird spending the holidays there. Seeing them for a bit was fine enough, but I don’t think I’d be able to do that. To be fair, I’ve technically known the two of you, plus Doug, longer than I’ve known anyone else, so I think that I’ve got my family right here.”

“Me too,” Hera said.

“I was thinking I’d spend the holidays here,” Minkowski said. “You guys are more family to me now. I even wish Jacobi would come, but I’m happy enough spending it with you guys.”

“I’m sure that this won’t come as a surprise, but Doug’s staying too,” Hera said. “He’s actually out shopping for presents right now, so it looks like we’re all going to be here together.”

* * *

Lovelace knocked on Doug’s door, Christmas morning. Of course it was the one morning he actually woke up early. He called that it was okay for her to come in, so she did, and he was sitting on his bed noodling on his guitar. He put it down. “What’s up?” he asked.

“C’mon. Bring your guitar,” Lovelace said. “I have something cool to show you.” Lovelace led Doug, carrying his guitar, to her room where she’d already set up her own bass and amp.

“Wanna jam?”

“Uh, I’ve never played with anyone else before,” Doug said, hesitant. “My answer's yes, but when did you get a bass?”

“It’s my old one,” Lovelace replied. “You can just play a progression, and I’ll follow along, just let me know what you’re doing.”

Doug did play a chord progression and Lovelace noodled around, looking at his fingers and following his lead. Lovelace was definitely rusty on the bass, but her experience shone through, and she got a melodic bass line that sounded pretty good after a little bit of experimentation. She was happy to see Doug, grinning ear to ear, doing some improvisation of his own.

“Alright,” Lovelace said. She put her bass down, and she could feel a smile forcing its way through. “I’ve got something for you.”

“That was already the coolest present I’ve ever gotten,” Doug remarked. “Also… we’re not doing presents until later?”

Lovelace gave a short laugh. “No, this isn’t for Christmas.” She grabbed a guitar case that was behind her bed, and picked the guitar up by the neck to pass it to Doug. “Happy birthday.”

“It’s… my birthday?”

“I. Yeah. Your birthday’s on Christmas. It is kind of a sucky day to have a birthday, but I got you this guitar as a birthday present. Christmas presents are still later.”

Doug took the guitar that Lovelace was holding out for him. She gave him a soft smile and he tuned it, Lovelace had taught him that much.

“You’re officially the guitarist of the house,” Lovelace said. “I’ll take bass duties. Happy thirty fifth, Doug.”

**Author's Note:**

> oh quick btw the title is from episode 12 when eiffel is talking about his birthday and says "not that anyone ever remembers". :).


End file.
